New poll shows Crist leading Gov. Rick Scott

March 19, 2013|By Scott Powers, Staff Writer

If there is still a Charlie Crist wing of Florida's Republican Party, it showed up in a new poll that finds the former governor and Republican-turned-independent-turned-Democrat leading incumbent Republican Gov. Rick Scott by 12 points.

Crist has not committed to running against Scott in 2014, but he keeps saying he is seriously considering the move. And political insiders and pollsters say he is the front-runner among potential Democrats.

The new poll from Public Policy Polling, a Democratic-leaning pollster with a good Florida track record, finds Crist leading Scott 52-40 in a head-to-head matchup, in part because of Republican support.

Despite a steady anti-Crist campaign run by the Republican Party of Florida since he bolted the party in 2010, Crist draws 29 percent of the vote among likely Republican voters.

The former governor said Tuesday he has been encouraged by people he talks with about a campaign. "This poll, it certainly isn't discouraging," he said.

Asked about the poll after a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, Scott dismissed it as meaningless. "There's one poll that matters; it's November 2014," he said.

The poll shows Scott remains unpopular, with 33 percent approving his job performance and 57 percent disapproving. That rating has remained fairly steady since Scott took office in January 2011.

Even Scott's more moderate recent positions on education funding and accepting federal Medicaid money has not made a difference, PPP director Tom Jensen said. "What we're finding is people are really dug in their opinions about him," he said.

The robo-call survey of 1,126 voters from March 15-18th, including 300 usual Democratic primary voters and 326 GOP primary voters. The margin of error was 4.4 percent for the full sample, 5.4 percent for Republican-only questions and 5.7 percent for Democrat-only questions.